Means for controlling the operation of doors or the like



1953* w. s. PATTISON ET AL 2,654,117

MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE OPERATION OF DOORS OR THE LIKE Filed Sept. 8, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet l Inventors Wesleg S attison; Edward B. Hawthorne Their Attorfieg.

Oct. 6, 1953 w. s. PATTISON ET AL 2,554,117

MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE OPERATION OF DOORS OR THE LIKE Filed Sept. 8, 1949 Fig. 7

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Inventors: Wesleg S. Pattison', Ed wa rd 15. Hawthorne,

The i1 Aotorny.

Patented Oct. 6, 1953 UNITED STATES PAT ENT OFF ICE.

MEANS FQRCONTROLLING THE OPERAe TION OF DOORS OR THE LIKE Application September 8, 1949, SerialNo. 114,494

L Claim. 1

This invention relatesto improved means for controlling the operation ofa door which is bi-. ased to return-to a predetermined position.

Our invention is applicable to any door which is biased to return toan original position, for example, to open or closed position, and we propose an improved spring-biased linkage in whichthe effectiveness of thespring is affected by a. changing mechanical advantage resulting from relatively changing linkage pivot points during door operation. With the door in what may con Veniently be called its inherently biased position the spring is ineffectiveto overcome-the bias even through the spring is at maximum operating tension, whereas with the doorin its other position a substantially relaxed spring will oppose the effort of the door bias to. return it to its first position. It is thus a general object of our invention to provide improved means for holding a door open or closed against mutually opposing biases.

It is another object of our invention to provide a novel operating linkage-employing spring. means in such fashion as to-assist in moving the door from one to another position, and even though. in said second position the spring means may be substantially relaxed to maintain the latter posi tion against an inherent bias tending to restore the door to original position.

It is still another object of the invention to provide door movement controllingmeans of. the spring-biased type which will interpose resist-- ance to the free fall of a gravity biased door so as to providea safety factor in the event: of spring failure.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide door movement control means'which is inexpensive to manufacture: and install and which will retain its effectiveness over a long operating life.

We accomplish these and other objectives'of our invention by a spring-biased linkage comprising, in effect, three pivotally interconnected links of which oneis directly engaged by aspring to urge the linkage system: into rotation opposite that accompanying doormovement-from its said inherently biased: position. For example, as-- suming that the door bias urgesit to closed-position, the spring means is acting to move the door to open position. Another of" said links comprises an arm operatively associated with the door for movement thereby, and the third link is connectedto the other two to-convertspring bias into turning movement available at the" said arm. The linkage arrangement issuch that with the door in closed position the spring bias is substantially at a peak and yet the power exerted thereby at the arm is ineffective to overcome the door bias. At the other extreme of movement, however, when the door bias may be at a maximum, the spring is under substantiallyminimum tension and yet able successfully to oppose said bias and hold the door open. We produce this relative change of" biasing eflect" by arranging the links in zig-zag fashion with their respectivepi-votpoints so positioned relativeto'ea-ch other as to obtain a changing; mechanical" advantage influencing the respective biasing strengths accord ing to the direction of motion of the doorand the desired condition at the-end ofmovementi The invention will be better understood from the following detailed description taken in con- 7 our invention in which the control means are disposed above the door which swings upwardly toopen position; Figs. 2 and 3 aretop plan views of the operating device of Fig. 1- respectively showing the relative position of the linkages and spring bias at the closed and at the fu l-1 open position of the door Fig.4 is a sectional elevationtaken through one of the control devices; Fig. 5 is-a side elevation thereof; Fig 6 is aside elevationpartly in section of a formof our control device adapted for mounting on the side wall of the cabinet; and Fig. 7 is afront el'eva-- tion of Fig. 6- with therigh-t-l iand-- portion being-- insection on lines 'l"-7--of-' Fig; 6a

It should bemen-tioned that becausewe prefer-'- ably use thecontrol devices: pairs, their re spective operating parts are oppositely arranged; and to avoid confusion when referringto direc-. tions of rotation, we have applied reference shar actors in detail only to the'left-hand devices of" Figs. 2 and 3'. said devices'will be-thosereferred to in the following description;

In Fig. 1 an embodiment of our invention is shown as applied tea cabinet l havinga front door' 2 Thecabinet may be; for example, an-

overhead kitchen cabinet which the door isg-ra-vity biased to" closed position. Ihe gravity" bias, which may be supplemented by spring" means; latches, or' the like, if' desired; will be hereinafter referred to-as'the inherent bias. As-

illustrated, thedoor' is supported for upward" tageously supported on a flange 6 extending upwardly from a base plate 1 which may be suitably affixed to the cabinet. The door is carried by the hubs 3 through the agency of the rigid angular arms 8 which extend from the side walls of the door. Ends of said arms preferably encircle the hubs 3 and are additionally affixed to the gear by suitable means such as the rivet 9 so that rotation of the door about the hubs 3 produces an accompanying rotation of the gears '4.

It will be noted that in the Fig. 1 embodiment the door is relatively narrower than the cabinet to permit the control devices 5 to be offset inwardly from the sides of the cabinet and thus permit adjacent cabinets to be placed in abutting relation in a multiple installation. It will be appreciated, however, that the doors may be made full width of the cabinet by suitably offsetting the arms 8 without alteration in operation of the control device.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 3, the basic operating structure of the control devices 5 is a springbiased linkage system comprising an arm mechanically associated with the door to be rotated thereby, a power link II, and a lever 12 which controls the position of the link ll relative to arm l0 and thereby affects the turning moment exerted on said arm by a coil spring or equivalent [4. Lever I2 is advantageously pivoted on the base plate I by a stud l3 for manufacturing economies, although it obviously may be applied directly to the cabinet. It is also an advantage to anchor spring [4 to a suitable extension of the pivot l5 connecting the members II and I2, although said spring may be applied directly either to II or l2 without affecting the operation later described. Although the use of springs individual to each control device has some advantages, for example, to guard against the breakage of one of said springs, we prefer to use a spring common to the devices. We associate the arm I0 with the door 2 by means of a gear segment l6 permanently meshing with gear 4; preferably the segment [6 and arm [0 are unitary with each other and mounted upon the pivot l'l common to both. The use of gears or equivalent is essential in the Fig. l embodiment because of the rectangular relationship of the respective gear axes 3 and I1, but it will be understood that except where they may be employed to give a mechanical advantage, their function is merely to transmit motion between the door and the arm I0 and that in some arrangements the arm l0 may be directly affixed to the door, or a part thereof, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. There is, therefore, a spring-biased linkage system consisting of three links: the arm l0 pivoted at ll, the lever l2 pivoted at [3, and the power link ll, pivoted to lever l2 at 15, and to arm ID at Ill. The mechanical advantage of such a linkage system derives from the turning moment exerted by link H on arm l0, and this is dependent on the spacing between pivot I1 and 1ink II, as represented by a line from said pivot normal to a line extending between pivots l5 and 18. At the closed door position, said line of link I l is desirably only slightly off-center with respect to the pivot l1 so as to reduce said moment arm to a practical minimum, and we therefore relieve the central portion of the link ll so as to avoid conflict with said pivot, as clearly appears.

With the door in its closed position the rotation of gear 4 has rotated gear [6 clockwise of Fig. 2 (considering the left-hand device) to bring the link ll into the position aforementioned and rotate lever l2 about its pivot so that the spring H is under maximum operating tension. It will be noted, however, that the length of lever I2 and the disposition of pivot l3 are such with respect to link II and its pivot [8 that lever I2 is at substantially 45 with respect to the line of effort of spring [4 so as not only to reduce the force exerted by the spring 14 on lever I! to rotate the same but to bias link H for movement upwardly of Fig. 2. The very short turning moment exerted by the link II on the arm l0 makes the spring ineffective to overcome the inherent bias of the door even though the spring is then at maximum operating tension. Generally speaking, pivot I3 should always be above pivot [8 so that lever 12 will always tend to lift link ll. As the door is raised manually, the mechanical advantage of the linkage system changes steadily until, on passage through a midposition, the lever [2 comes into a more advantageous mechanical relation with the spring I! and the turning moment exerted by the link II on arm l0 consistently increases so that the spring l4 becomes effective to draw link ll upwardly to rotate the arm I0 and gear [6 counterclockwise. The spring thus becomes effective to complete the movement of the door to the open position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. In the Fig. 3 position the residual tension of the spring is being used to best advantage, and even though it has decreased in value it maintains said open position against the inherent bias of the door even though the latter is at a maximum since the turning moment exerted by link II on lever I0 is at a maximum. Link H and lever I! are in an acute angular relationship in which the pivot I5 is beyond the pivot l3 (considered rela tive to pivot [8) with the result that the tendency of the door bias to rotate arm 10 clockwise against the pull of link H on lever I2 is largely expended in the direction of pivot l3, and such component acting to the left of lever I2 is overcome by the spring tension.

To limit the rotation of the respective linkages in their open position and thus establish the upper limit of door movement, we provide means such as the stop screw for engagement with a stop arm 2| which is unitary with gear segment I6.

The embodiment of Figs. 6 and '7 is substantially identical with that previously described except that the control means 5a are arranged for side wall mounting and the respective gear elements may conveniently be of the spur type. The common or equivalent elements have been appropriately numbered for ready comparison. The springs I la are of necessity individual to each bracket and, if desired, suitable tensioning screws [4b may be provided so that the effort of each spring may be equalized. It should also be noted that Fig. 6 might also represent a cabinet in which the door 2a swings on a vertical pivot; for example, the conventional floor cabinet with an outwardly swinging door. In such an arrangement, of course, there would be no gravity bias and, therefore, we have indicated a spring I40 anchored at the cabinet wall and to the door mounting arm 8a to return the door to closed position. Failure of one of the springs Ha will, of course, prevent the door from being maintained in its open position, but will not prevent manual raising of the door. If a spring should break while the door is open, the fall of the door will be slowed by the remaining spring plus the inherent functional resistance of the several pivotal connections and gears.

It will be understood that in the side mounted types of Figs. 6 and '7, suitable masking devices may be used between adjacent cabinets, and on the exposed end walls, to conceal the operators.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

Means for controlling the opening and closing of a door biased to one extreme of movement, comprising a gear pivotally mounted at a fixed location relative to said door; an arm member extending radially from said gear; a second gear; means for pivotally securing said second gear for permanent meshing relationship with the first gear; means fixed to said second gear and extending between said gear and said door to move the door upon rotation of said second gear; and spring biasing means opposing the bias of the door, comprising a lever pivotally fixed relative to said arm member; spring means for urging said lever into rotation; and a link pivotally interconnecting said arm member and said lever whereby the door bias and the spring exert opposite rotational influences on said lever, the position of said link relative respectively to said first named gear pivot and to said lever changing during opening movement of the door from a condition wherein the rotational influence of the link on said gear is small and on said lever is large enough to rotate the lever to place the spring under maximum tension, to a condition wherein the rotational influence of the link on the lever is so small that the tension of said spring withstands the counter-rotative efiort exerted by said link under the influence of the door bias.

WESLEY S. PA'I'I'ISON. EDWARD B. HAWTHORNE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,409,857 Hillson Mar. 14, 1922 1,582,504 Bird Apr. 27, 1926 2,244,182 Allen June 3, 1941 

